North America Is Expected to Lead Communications Hardware and Services Revenue for Distributed Energy Resources Integration Until 2020

A new report from Navigant Research analyzes the global marketplace for distributed energy resources (DER) communications hardware and services, providing global market forecasts, broken out by segment, category, technology, and region, through 2026.

As DER proliferates, utilities and third-party owners have ramped up investments in asset connectivity and networking for improved operating economics, energy efficiency, and grid reliability. Control and communications at the DER level are anticipated to enable the development of markets for aggregated clean resources and services, service-oriented business models, and integrated grid management strategies. According to the report from, North America is expected to lead communications hardware and services revenue for DER integration until 2020, when Asia Pacific is anticipated to become the top market through 2026.

“Growing penetrations of DER threaten distribution grid stability and greatly complicate the grid management process for utilities,” says Michael Kelly, research analyst at Navigant Research. “To date, the structure of the distribution grid adds to the complexity of the problem, primarily due to the lack of sensing, intelligence, and high-speed communications at the edge of the grid.”

While compensation schemes will need to be developed to coordinate utility data access and control, demand for visibility at the DER level is expected to supersede most regulatory or cost considerations, according to the report. In order to adequately mitigate challenges and enable DER integration, pervasive visibility into the network is needed, and third-party DER owners must also pursue communications capabilities to optimize system performance and deliver the maximum benefits to end customers.

The report, Communications Technologies for DER Integration, analyzes the global marketplace for DER communications hardware and services. The study examines the key market issues related to growth in DER communications capabilities, including drivers, challenges, and emerging trends. Global market forecasts, broken out by segment, category, technology, and region, extend through 2026. Analyses of communications technologies include: cellular, fiber, low power wide area networks (LPWA), point-to-multipoint (P2MP), radio frequency (RF) mesh, power line communications (PLC), and Wi-Fi. The report also examines the key applications related to DER communications, as well as the competitive landscape. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.